This is album number 27, no less, from the UK ensemble Florilegium for the Channel Classics label. The figure points to their enormous success, and this recording of the Essercizii Musici only confirms their status. The full title of this collection by Telemann is "Musical diversions consisting of 12 solos and 12 sonatas in trio for various instruments". Although in reality the twelve "solos" (which are played by two instruments, flute or oboe and basso continuo) there are two pieces for truly-solo harpsichord, making for a total of 22 pieces of chamber music. These are pieces for practical and domestic use, which the composer had published at his own expense around 1740, apparently, as a means of clearing the debts of his sweetheart, a compulsive gambler with whom he no longer lived but still paid all the same... Apart from these debts, the release of the Essercizii was also motivated by a desire to corner the lucrative market for big bourgeois consumers and music lovers in Hamburg, who spent the long winter nights playing contemporary music. Telemann's work was particularly favoured, because it was so well-written, not too technically demanding but always sweet-sounding. Florilegium give us eleven of the collection's twenty-four sonatas, mixing solo and trio sonatas (and the trios are actually played by trios: flute, gamba and basso continuo) – a rich music which proves once again that Telemann was able to continually reinvent himself, however big his catalogue became. © SM/Qobuz